Aesthetics Limbo Project - an ongoing project of restoring, revamping and much more

Welcome to the Limbo Project

Having been out of the hobby for about 10 years, I am making a return and am jumping in head first and putting a lot on my plate. It is going to be a large project consisting of all sorts of aesthetics and modifications, some of which I will be relearning after a decade of being out, and a lot that I will be attempting for the first time, and this is the space that I am going to use to log what I have done so I can look back on my progress and hopefully pick up some good tips and tricks. The naming is due to the nature of the characters of the dolls that will be making up the vast majority of these activities.

Some of what I will be tackling:

• How the heck to use an airbrush - for painting and for sealing
• Faceups - I used to do these a lot, but I am so out of practise it feels like the first time all over again. I also only used to use pastels, pencil and hand painting details. This time around I am going to be learning how to use the airbrush to assist with them, when step number 1 is complete lol.
• Body blushing
• Epoxy fill in's, repairs and modifications
• De-yellowing old parts
• Making resin eyes
• Printing and painting accessories etc (if my 3d printer plans go correctly and I am able to get one)
• Potentially hand making clothes and accessories
• Potentially making wigs

There is a very high chance I am biting off waaaay more than I can chew but oh well!

How are we starting?

The project is beginning with two main victims, the first being my 2008 Soom Euclase (Khalfani). For him it is mostly for me learning airbrush techniques, face ups, and body blushing. Head and fantasy parts (including the small patches of discoloration on the feet from way back when I wasn't aware of just how aggressive acetone was on resin, particularly coloured resin) are currently clean and ready to go, complete with several base layers of MSC. I am currently using MSC as that is my ol' reliable, however I do want to attempt sealing and priming with liquitex when I am able to get some. I am wanting to try this due to the method being less toxic than MSC, but also because due to living in the UK we are prone to damp, humid and all around not-MSC-friendly weather and I have heard the airbrushing liquitex is much less volatile in non-ideal climates.



The second is my 2008 Soom Heliot (Asta). As it stands I currently only have half of them - dreaming head, hands and fantasy leg parts and even though they have been boxed for almost their entire life time (because I constantly procrastinated about buying them an actual body and now 14 years later they are still only a selection of limbs) they have some definite yellowing. In the very near future I am also going to be receiving an original Heliot body, however due to having seen use that has also yellowed and to a different level as the parts I have, so the big thing with this is going to be not only overall reducing the yellowing, but trying to get them to match as close as possible, and then resolving any remaining tone issues with the airbrush. I wasn't expecting to find an original body so I was expecting to have to buy a different brand and heavily mod the knee joints in order for the Heliot parts to fit, however I got very lucky. I haven't completely thrown away the idea of getting a different brand body and modding, if the yellowing is unable for me to fix I may get a new one and work on it later on, but for the mean time they will at least have a form and I am very excited at the prospect of all the work I will get to do with it.

Further modifications to these parts will also include removing the Unicorn horn clumps and filling in the gaps (this part I am already working on, the epoxy was mixed up and popped on today and is currently curing as you can see in the pictures), but I will also be hoping to reduce/remove the genitals on the body so they can be the true genderless divinity they are supposed to be. They will also be the recipient of my attempt at casting resin eyes once my mould arrives in the post, very exciting stuff.



And with that the journey is begun, and later today I will be making my very first attempt at airbrushing - a prospect both exciting and mildly terrifying!

 

Oh absolutely I am already imagining all the things that can and probably will go wrong lol. No hybrids yet. I tried one many many years ago and oh the headache it caused lol. I am hoping to avoid any for the time being while I rebuild up my confidence, but further down the line there are a few potential hybrids I am considering when I am feeling strong enough xD thank you for joining me on my journey!

 

So, I cracked out the airbrush for the first time! It is definitely a learning curve but I was able to get some stuff that I wanted done and currently I am loving it so much! Oh how much easier it makes body blushing especially these giant ass Euclase feet.



I cant wait to see how they will look when fully stringed together as opposed to being held up together to make sure the blushing matches. I am however going to hold off on using it on a face for serious until I have got plenty of practise in - I feel that the precision needed for that will be a lot less forgiving than afore mentioned giant ass feets. Fortunately I received the shipping notice for my two practise heads from ACBJD today! And as well as them coming I have started the process of removing the faces of two of my older, non limbo-related dolls. I am considering reshelling them to be honest so that's even more face space I have right now to go mad on and try some idea's I have for upcoming characters.

I also today cracked on with the gold detailing. I am in love with the gold Mr Hobby Aqueous paint, it has such a lovely tone and shimmer.



Sadly though, I am having a terrible shaky hand day after massively overdoing it on wednesday, darn spine being a dick, so the lines were not the tidiest. For the feet I have left them as is for now as I am greatly considering pulling out the airbrush again to give them a nice blend given the size of them. For the hands I have tidied up the lines, but I greatly regret sealing it with MSC, it seems to have given the gold a much more orange-y tone that I am not a fan of. I will likely see if I can go over with the gold again to cover it and just gloss them to keep them looking tidy.

But good news, my OG Heliot body is being shipped today! I cant wait to crack on with the attempts at de-yellowing that bad boy.

 

So what have we done over the weekend - other than spend way too much money at hobbycraft and the works lol


I did in face crack out the airbrush and put a blend on both the hands and the feet




I also did a quick restring just to see how they all sat together, and in my amazing directionally challenged wonder managed to put them on the wrong way =w= oops. it was only a quick string anyway and they have since been taken apart, I have started laying down the base layers on the rest of his body to give it a light blushing.

I also tried using my airbrush to do blushing on an all head that is now for practise, it didn't go terribly, but I had to use a lot of self control to not go completely ham with it. I am unsure yet if I feel confident enough yet to try it on Khalfani's head.



I've already gone through a whole ass can of MSC, I really want to get the liquitex matte medium down to a fine art. I did try do a few layers but first time I did it way too think, and on the second one I think I was too close, but from feeling it it does give amazing tooth so hopefully it won't be long until I master the art of that.

I have also done a great and terrible thing. I put in my preorder form on the new Morolab2 head I am excited and very anxious, as this will be reshelling the character of my first ever BJD that I purchased 14 years ago.

 

Oooooh yes I also went in with a million different grades of sandpaper and sanded down Asta's horn-fill-in-epoxy-patch. Such a beautiful smooth forehead

 

So I cracked on with the body blushing, I only went in light as I didn't want to overdo it straight out the bat, when everything is finished I will look to see if it could do with a heavier hand in places.



I also finally worked up the courage to work on Khalfani's actual face, instead of every other part of his body lol. I wanted to go in with the airbrush for the blush hence my hesitance, but I threw caution to the wind and got on with it, and instantly loved the results



Many layers later and I finally got to a stopping point that I was happy with the details



Originally I had intended to add some dot details to it, but I was afraid of 1) over doing it and 2) ruining what I had done, so for now I stopped at these details. I just need to wait for my Mica powder to arrive so that I can give him the gold highlights I wanted and then I can get him fully sealed and glossed. I can also confidently say that I have mastered the Liquitex Matte Medium - I finally got it to a good consistency that works well with the airbrush so thats a win in my books, and is going to save me so much MSC as I will now only be using the normal for the initial base layers, and then UV cut as the final seal layer.

In Asta related news, his body is currently being held hostage by parcelforce while I await the physical letter to arrive with my reference number so I can pay to release him. Seriously how have they not upgraded their system within the last 15 years that I can just pay the fee's online using the tracking number, why am I still having to wait for a physical letter to arrive

 

Ty! Those fades were something I had wanted for years when I first purchased him, finally being able to do them properly made me so happy

 

Login • Instagram Khalfani’s face is finisheeeeed and I am very happy with it. I wasn’t happy with some of the body pieces blushing so I have wiped and prepped a few of those bits to redo, his new wig, eyes and lounging robe are on order! Once he is all assembled I will be able to try my hand at making him some more decorative bits of clothing hopefully, if it all goes according to plan lol.

Asta’s body also appeared yesterday! So operation un-yellowing has commenced! He’s currently doll soup as I am starting with the denture cleaner cleaning method to see how much I can get out with that over the next few days, failing that it will be oxy-clean method up next.

 

The denture tablet bathing did practically nothing for the yellowing, so this evening we have started phase 2! The first oxi-bath has just been brewed, fingers crossed!

 

A week since I've updated. Honestly its too hot right now, I tried to do some sewing bits today and just ended up sweaty, couldn't even do that in comfort in this temperature!

But since then we've done several oxi-baths and are finally seeing a dent in the yellowing. I have purchased a different kind of oxi-wash as well which I was hoping might be more effective, but from the one today it isn't looking like it made much of a different so may need to go back and purchase some of the ol' classic. But for a reference we now have a tone difference from the starting human hand!



Once my new bicarb arrives tomorrow I will be able to continue with the peroxide toothpaste wallpaper paste attempts to see if that does anything.

In other news, Khalfani's new wig arrived and it is so long and beautiful I love it. I popped his old eyes in so he actually had some, since I am not expecting his new ones to arrive for a while. They may be the wrong colour but at least he looks more put together now.



Since it is too hot right now for me to continue on with my sewing practises for him, I think I may simply unstring Little One and redo his blushing and face up - I like his current aesthetic but I just feel I can do it cleaner with the airbrush now (plus he can be super sparkly from the Mica powder) so that will be fun, and by the time I have him fully cleaned and ready to go it should be less like the surface of the sun so MSC should behave. Plus I will need to put in some highlights to go with his new eyes that I am also waiting on!



Precious babbu lets tidy you up

On a COMPLETELY unrelated note that has nothing to do with any of my Limbo characters, I may have finally decided on a body for new Gabby. He gon' be an even toller boy than before